New effort in California to launch universal basic income programs has its eyes on Fresno
California’s leading voice on guaranteed basic income has established a new nonprofit that could have implications for Fresno and beyond.
Former Stockon Mayor Michael Tubbs on Thursday announced the launch of End Poverty in California, a new nonprofit that will focus on developing pilot programs that address poverty, such as guaranteed basic income and baby bonds.
“EPIC is building on my work with Mayors for Guaranteed Income and some of the work I’ve been doing with the governor to really organize the state to focus on how we make ending poverty our north star,” Tubbs said in an interview with The Bee.
Tubbs, the first Black mayor of Stockton, piloted a guaranteed basic income program in the city in 2019. The results of the pilot program have largely been lauded as a success in improving the emotional health and increasing employment of the program participants.
After losing his re-election bid in 2020, Tubbs went on to become a special advisor on economic mobility to Gov. Gavin Newsom, where he helped launch initiatives such as the $35 million guaranteed basic income pilot that the state announced in 2021.
Tubbs said he hopes EPIC will change the narrative on poverty from one that emphasizes individual choices as the main causes of poverty to one that emphasizes systemic failures.
“We won’t ever really change policy around poverty until we change the story around poverty,” Tubbs said.
Many local leaders “think that people are poor because they’re lazy, or that the government shouldn’t help people,” Tubbs said. “That’s why so much of our work will be educating people,” he said.
Ultimately, he said he hopes the organization adds “firepower” to the conversation on ending poverty and can serve the “squeaky wheel” that holds the state and the public accountable to the goal of ending poverty in California.
“I’m excited about how doable it is, how tangible it is,” Tubbs said. “Now the question is: do we want to do it as a state or not?”
A Blueprint for an Inclusive and Just Economy
The launch of EPIC coincides with the release of a report prepared in partnership with the Stanford Center of Poverty and Inequality titled “A Blueprint for an Inclusive and Just Economy.”
The report outlines institutional challenges that exacerbate poverty and inequality — such as housing, employment, the justice system, wealth-creating institutions, and existing social safety net programs such as food stamps and unemployment — and offers reform solutions to address these institutions and their role in exacerbating poverty and inequality.
The report also recommends supplemental programs, or “redistributional approaches,” that rely on cash, tax credits, vouchers, or direct services, such as a guaranteed basic income program and “baby bonds,” or publicly funded bonds for children of low-income families that become available when the child turns 18 years old.
The report also has a number of recommendations on strengthening training programs, workers’ rights to collectively bargain, and workplace safety.
EPIC will use the report to guide its work and hopes to work with both state and local leadership to implement its recommendations, Tubbs said.
Fresno as an “EPIC” community, north star for the Valley?
In November, Tubbs quietly came to Fresno to hold a listening session at the Community Center for Arts and Technology with local stakeholders.
Tubbs said he learned about the intersection of poverty and immigration, the housing crisis, and issues related to unincorporated areas of Fresno County.
Tubbs said he saw a “real appetite” for anti-poverty work in local groups such as the DRIVE initiative, Faith in the Valley, and local youth-led organizations.
He said he hopes Fresno becomes an “EPIC community” hub. “I think in terms of the Valley, Fresno is going to be that ‘north star’ in terms of what we can be,” he said.
The Stanford report found that many families experiencing poverty are low-wage workers whose earnings are not sufficient to cover living expenses, especially in areas with high housing costs, such as Fresno, which has seen a 28% increase in rental prices over the last year.
Tubbs said he is confident that more people are open to the idea of anti-poverty programs such as guaranteed income, in part thanks to the federal government’s decision to issue stimulus checks during the pandemic, starting “under the not liberal Donald Trump,” he said.
Fourteen mayors in California, and 60 mayors across the country, have joined Mayors for Guaranteed Income and are launching guaranteed income pilot programs.
Local community leaders also hope more locals warm up to the idea as well.
A coalition of Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce, and Fresno State’s Center for Community Voices, is working on a guaranteed basic income program in Fresno and plans to apply for the state’s pilot funding for such programs. The request for proposals is expected to open in the coming months.
Amber Crowell, advisor for Faith in the Valley and co-director of the Center for Community Voices at Fresno State, celebrated the news of EPIC’s launch and said she hopes to collaborate with the organization in the future.
“This is how we should think about poverty: it’s humanizing, it’s focusing on the structural solutions, which is the way you have to think about poverty. Poverty is not an individual choice. It’s a policy choice,” she said.
The local coalition has started holding listening sessions in the city to gather feedback from people experiencing poverty and will plan to hold another listening session in West Fresno later this month.
Melissa Montalvo is a reporter with The Fresno Bee and a Report for America corps member. This article is part of The California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequity and economic survival in California.
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
